Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Tanooki
Fire away...  |
Man! I feel like Robocop when they terminated his 4th prime directive preventing him from arresting any senior executive of OCP. Now I can take the gloves off!
Okay Tanooki, I can see that you have been reading some detailing threads by the fact that you bought two buckets. Don't buy anything else until you have done some research of the correct caliber. You know how they say "practice makes perfect?" The correct saying is "perfect practice makes perfect." If you are repeating a incorrect approach, you will experience what you are experiencing.
Let's start with those two buckets you bought. Great for carrying water around in but they are the last things that I would use to wash my car. The reason why is that your two buckets are missing the most important thing that a two bucket wash process must have in order to SAFELY wash your car and those are
Grit Guards.
It does you no good to use a two bucket system if your soap and rinse water has dirt in it that you continuously disturb every time you stick your mitt into them. The Grit Guards are what prevents this from happening, along with the practice of using two buckets. I
did a thread about the Grit Guards and the Grit Guard buckets and how they work. I suggest that you take a look at that thread so that you can get a thorough understanding of the importance of using them.
Next, let's address those towels and that Chamois or "shammy". First, the shammy. There is one major problem with those and that is, not all Chamois are authentic. Everything that you will find in the big box and auto stores are usually made in China crap consisting of goat or pig skin, instead of being made from the actual Chamois, a goat-antelope species native to mountains in Europe, including the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, the European Alps, the Tatra Mountains, the Balkans, parts of Turkey, and the Caucasus.
Now I didn't remember that off the top of my head, I had to look that up!
Anywho, if you think that what you are getting in a auto store is high grade and cost a lot, those prices and quality are nothing compared to the cost of real Chamois, which is often used in the glove making industry. For example, a 40x60cm piece of real Chamois will run you around $50 US. But man, they make some of the best driving and golf gloves that you will ever put your hands into. I paid $60 for my Chamois golf gloves.
That China made junk is garbage and will scratch up your paint. I used enough of it in the 80's to know first hand.
The same goes for the microfiber towels that you purchased. If you look at the tags on them, you will see that they were made in China. Totally garbage. When I bought my car from the first owner, he told me that the only thing he ever used to dry the car with was those fancy microfiber towels that he bought at Auto Zone. Here's what the car looked like the day I bought it:
Concentrate on the door where the sun is hitting it. Do you see all those hideous scratches and swirls? That looks like utter crap! This is the bliss that a lot of car owners live in. Those cheap, made in China towels are NOT what you want touching your car. They will scratch the paint to hell and back. It doesn't happen with the first use, it happens over time. Those scratches will always be in your paint if you continue to use those towels you bought.
Now I never bag on a product without recommending a alternative. I have found two towels which are worth their weight in gold. The
Adam's Single Soft Microfiber Towel and the
Zaino Borderless Blond Towel. You cannot go wrong with either towel. These are two of the best towels on the market.
Now let's address your product choice. Since you purchased Meguiar's, I will assume that Meguiar's is the brand you want to use. I will not attempt to change your mind, however, I will educate you on the product of your choice.
Meguiar's has an excellent line of products, some of which I use in my very own garage. You on the other hand,
did not purchase any of them. As a matter of fact, what you purchased was from the junk line that Meguiar's sells. Here's the deal.
Meguiar's has two separate lines of product. One line will say "Meguiar's" on the bottle (what you bought). That is their consumer line. It is priced aggressively compared to the other products that sit beside it on the shelves at the big box and auto stores. That is their watered down, containing fillers line. That is what I call garbage.
Then there is their professional line. It will say "Mirror Glaze" on the label. This product IS NOT sold in big box or auto stores. The only place that you can get it is online, at professional body shop outlets or at a Mirror Glaze distributor.
This is the stuff you want to be using if you are going to use the Meguiar's line. It ain't cheap and it is not conveniently located (unless you have a Mirror Glaze distributor in your city like I do). ANYTHING from their professional line is going to be an outstanding product. You have a multitude of products to choose from within that line and for a novice, this can be not only confusing, but daunting at the same time. That is the main reason that I don't use it as a teaching tool. Novices get totally lost in all the different products. That is also why I use Adam's, and use it as a teaching tool. It is as simple as
these videos.
Now there are people who use the consumer line products from Meguiar's and feel that they are a lot better than I give them credit for. At the same time, I'm sure you've had a friend who swore that some woman he saw was fine as hell but once you laid eyes upon her, you were looking for the nearest grocery bag. All of that is to say this. Anyone can tell you that their paint looks better than showroom on the Internet. They can even post a 20' shot of their car and make it look gorgeous. But until you can walk up to their car and stick your nose down in the paint, you will really never know if what they say is true or not. That's why I will set the bar at what I call perfect paint so that you and I are on the same page.
Here's a car that looks like it is ready for a trip across the stage at Barrett-Jackson. At first glance, this is a dream.
But when you actually walk up on the paint and stick your nose in it, this is what you see:
It's about as bad as when they turn the lights on at closing time in a strip club, allowing you actually see what the strippers really look like.
Now using the process that you saw in the videos that I linked to earlier, this is what half of that car looked like when I finished with it:
As you can see, my idea of perfect paint is little more extreme than most. You are not going to get those kinds of results with the stuff you purchased. You kinda wasted your money there but hey, we all had to learn including me. Mind you, I started back in the early 80's so I've been through a lot of garbage products.
I'll leave you with two images of my paint. From 10 feet:
...and from 10 inches:
The result is the same. Flawless.
I await your questions.
